A/N: This chapter takes place after Kahlan and Nadine have fought Marlin/Jagang in the sewers just after he escaped the pit. Unfortunately he gets away from them and flees the palace.

Somatosensory

Chapter 1

An utterly exhausted Kahlan almost smiles as she wanders through the halls, winding back towards the location of the pit. She feels the warmth, and familiarity of being in the more frequented areas of the Palace again seep into her pores. The gushing of the water in the tunnels below must have cleared her head…she can't hear the screaming. But her ears are ringing. Momentarily, Kahlan considers that she may have imagined them, but immediately dismisses the notion. She quickens her step and passes a couple of guards on her way towards the main group close to the pit, busy inspecting the shredded corpses of those guards already at the receiving end of Jagang's wrath.

The first words out of the captain's mouth are of concern for Kahlan, as the Mother Confessor. But Kahlan almost wants to smack him just for making her request take even these few seconds longer to ask.

'How long has she been silent, Captain?'

He pauses slightly before offering an answer. And with an expression housing the tiniest hint of pride, says 'Maybe an hour.'

An hour…

Maybe…

…an hour.

Kahlan fought to contain her fury in that moment. Instantly her face took on the appearance of the Confessor, and after a breath, she simply strode off in the direction of the pit without reacting to the captain's questioning expression. He looked confused…as if he didn't realise he should have said any different.

All D'Haran soldiers had a healthy fear of magic…even the Mord'Sith had a healthy fear of magic when it wasn't directed toward them and able to be bent to their will…but this. He didn't even know. It was clear no-one had even looked in to see if Cara was still alive. They probably wouldn't care either way. D'Haran loyalty only went so far. Whatever had caused such indescribable, tremendous pain to warrant that reaction from a Mord'Sith, would be enough to terrify anyone, let alone a D'Haran soldier with a fear of magic.

Kahlan closed her eyes as she walked, and took a calming breath through her nose. If she was dead…If Cara had died because these men didn't save her; were too afraid of magic, even after she stopped screaming…an hour ago…this man…these men…would be returning to the underworld without heads before this hour was ended.

Bearing her signature expression, Kahlan brushed the soldiers aside and advanced straight toward the opening of the pit. The door was still closed; Kahlan only briefly allowed her incensement at the men surrounding it to surface, with a glare, before she stepped onto the ladder and in three neat skips down the rungs, hit the floor.

Piercing eyes swung up in the direction of the blonde, and Kahlan let out her breath.

There she was. Alive.

Cara was in the shadowy corner where Kahlan had left her…the memory of doing so still burned crisp in her mind, and the piercing scream still fresh in her ears. But Cara was no longer crumpled in a heap on her knees. Instead, she was on her side, convulsing; legs and arms thrashing against the walls in a violent, continuous spasm.

Kahlan felt the air remove itself from the room. She didn't run. She didn't walk. She didn't even move. Her entire range of senses, were at this moment, content to simply absorb the facts concerning the scene in front of her.

Cara was shaking violently against the walls, choked sounds joined with the thuds and grating sounds her body was making as it hit stone and scraped across the floor.

She was choking on her own vomit.

Kahlan found her limbs fighting to free themselves from the hold the shock had on her body. Scrambling across the filth covered floor, she reached out and grabbed Cara roughly by the shoulder, as her feet skidded out to the side in the dirt. She grasped Cara under the arms, as best she could avoiding her flailing limbs, and pulled, yanking her clear of the wall and up into her lap, so she wouldn't hurt herself any more than she had already had. She rolled Cara immediately onto her side, facing her to the floor, arms shaking rigidly at her sides.

Kahlan grabbed Cara's jaw to open her mouth but found it clenched completely shut. She pressed hard on the point where Cara's jaw hinged, forcing it forward and her mouth to open.

"Breathe!" "Breathe, Cara, breathe."

She swept two fingers straight through her mouth, deep enough to touch the back of her throat. And sure enough, Cara spluttered and coughed, the obstruction having cleared itself sufficiently to allow her to breathe. Whatever useful outcome this had on Cara's breathing, it had exactly no effect on her convulsions.

Kahlan shuffled her legs closer to the prone woman, making it easier to pull her back into her lap. She had hoped, half-heartedly, that this would snap Cara out of her dazed, afflicted state and offer some kind of relief. But she no idea how to help Cara. She remembered few occasions where she had felt this helpless. She was only just meeting Cara, really…she couldn't die; not now.

Cara was still straining with massive effort, as if trying to escape from her very own skin. Her thrashing, snapping limbs continued their relentless battering at Kahlan's legs, and the floor in equal measure, and Kahlan grasped Cara tighter to herself. Willing it to stop.

Nadine had left to go and fetch her supplies, any number of which might offer Cara some kind of help, but there was no way to know whether anything would help at all. Cara could remain like this until her body simply gave in, unable to take any more. Kahlan knew already that this was a distinct possibility, and though almost every ounce of her will directed itself at believing the opposite…some tiny part of her was focused on that tiny droplet of doubt; that Cara wouldn't survive; and that Jagang would have won his tiny medal of satisfaction in knowing he had caused the Mother Confessor pain.

All Kahlan could do was hold Cara. Hold her, even if the only thing it did was to immobilize Cara and stop her hurting any more than she had to. Kahlan held her as tight as she could manage with her injured shoulder. She held her as tight as she dared, resting her cheek on the top of Cara's head as she waited; time moving wretchedly slowly as she lingered there, alone with Cara; hoping that wherever Nadine was, she was running.

Kahlan gazed at Cara, the shaking becoming less of a shock as it simply carried on, minute after minute. Kahlan looked at her; at her face, bloody and sickeningly pale. Her breath was hitching; she was soaked to the skin, sweat running in droplets down the twisting muscles in her neck and pooling in the notch below. Her eyes weren't even shut, as Kahlan expected; they were open, and blank, but directed almost up into her own head, the whites of her eyes visibly bloodshot. Her jaw had jammed shut again and she simply shook, violently, laid with her head and shoulders in Kahlan's lap, being cradled and held with as much care and tenderness as the situation permitted; which wasn't much. If she had been properly conscious, Cara would have noticed the drop of moisture fall to her head. A tear. From the eye of the woman forming a halo of dark hair around her head as she leant, and cradled her, folding herself around the blonde and taking small gasps of air as fresh tears fell.

Kahlan wondered if these were Cara's last moments, what she must be thinking. She hoped with every tear she was shedding that Cara knew that she was loved; that all of them had come to care for her; that she had earned her place. And she hoped more than anything that she would get a chance to tell those things to Cara again, really tell her. She desperately clung to the smaller woman, as if trying to convince her of these things; that she wouldn't leave her, as if all of the thoughts of care and love running through her head would be magically conveyed to her through touch, and thought. Her tears were falling slowly but freely now, and Kahlan just wished Nadine would hurry, as she smoothed Cara's hair.

"Hold on, Cara. I care."

She sniffed quietly as she nudged the side of Cara's head with her jaw and squeezed the blonde tighter.

"I care. We want you to live"

This woman; this Mord'Sith, once so respected by her peers, had been ruined by them. She had been through immense pain almost every day of her life. She didn't deserve this. She didn't deserve a second's more pain after all of those days that she had to bear so much. This wasn't fair.

Kahlan grasped Cara's face with one hand as she hugged her across the shoulders with the other, her own shoulders starting to ache with the effort and the vibration caused by Cara's shaking, and rested her cheek on the soft hair adjacent to her temple.

If there was ever a person who had been through enough, it was Cara. Kahlan felt a stinging rage fill her heart; as if the fury contained within Kahlan toward Jagang needed any extra fuel.

"Hold on, Cari. You're not alone; I'm with you. I won't leave you. I promise."

TBC